Since the early days of television and extending to the present day it has generally believed that large external antennas or cable hookup is necessary to provide a television receiver with the required signal strength to provide a perfect picture and sound to the viewer.
External antennas generally take the form of large cumbersome conic or Yagi type construction and are placed outdoors either on a pole on the roof top of the building housing the receiver or in attic or the like of a building. These antennas are somewhat fragile as they are formed by the combination of a plurality of parts including reflectors and receiving elements formed of light weight aluminum tubing or the like having various lengths to satisfy the frequency requirements of the received signals and plastic insulators. The receiving elements are held in relative position by means of the insulators and the reflectors elements are grounded together.
Assemblage of these antennas is required either by the user which may bend or break some of the elements during construction which must be replaced or become injured by falling or the like or by an installer for hire either of which increase the already high economic cost of the antenna.
Externally placed antennas of this type are continually subjected to the elements. Even if not damaged or destroyed by the elements during harsh weather conditions over time these antennas will generally produce poor reception or reduced reception during extreme weather conditions or will gradually reduce their ability to produce acceptable reception over time due to mechanical decay.
In addition to the above deficiencies, this type of receiving antenna is aesthetically ugly.
Other antennas that are currently used are indoors antennas which are easy on the eyes but unacceptable for producing a good picture and sound. The most common and effective of these indoor antennas is the well known dual dipole type positioned adjacent to or on the television receiver and affectionately referred to as "rabbit ears". These antennas are generally ineffective for fringe area reception and are only effective for strong local signal reception. When low frequency signals reception is desired, the dipoles must be extended to their maximum length which makes the "rabbit ear" antenna susceptible to tipping over or interfering with or causing possible damage to any adjacent objects.
Cable systems are also currently used for delivering signals to television receivers. This system is highly successful for delivering picture perfect signals to a television receiver over a large range of frequencies. One of the strongest disadvantages to the cable signal delivery systems is the economic cost of installation and the periodic cost of the signal delivery to the user which can run as high as one hundred dollars monthly.
Satellite dishes with their accompanying accessories is another of the present methods of receiving television signals. This method is popular and successful for receiving signals from fixed in position satellites. Systems of this type require large diameter dishes generally in excess of six feet and ideally about twelve feet for receiving acceptable signal levels. Small dishes under two feet in diameter are presently unusable for all but the most powerful satellite transmitters. The acceptable sized dishes are ugly to view and because of size are hard to hide from sight. In addition the systems as they exist today are quite expensive and, therefore, not available to all who desire to view picture perfect television reception.
There has not been a highly signal sensitive, visually attractive indoor television antenna until the emergence of the instant antenna.